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30
Oct 2020
Last Updated: 31/10/2020
Harrogate district care homes to reopen doors to visitors
It comes a month after North Yorkshire County Council advised care homes to stop visits amid rising infection levels.
Debs Bannister, administrator at Vida Grange, using the Surfaceskin door pad.
Care homes in the Harrogate district will be able to open their doors for visitors from Sunday.
With strict procedures still in place, a resident will only be able to see one designated visitor.
However, in care homes where there are covid outbreaks, visits will be stopped to protect residents.
It comes after North Yorkshire County Council advised care homes to stop visits throughout October amid rising infection levels.
Read more:
- A quarter of North Yorkshire care homes affected by covid
- Harrogate care homes urged to end routine visits in October
- Harrogate care home unable to get flu jabs for staff
While those infection levels are still on the upward trend, the county council is keen to balance safety and wellbeing.
Richard Webb, the corporate director for health and adult services at the county council, said:
"North Yorkshire is currently still in tier one. But if part, or all, of the county moves into a higher level of restrictions at any point, then decisions about visiting may be beyond our control.
"However, I have already alerted Public Health England that we would like to see a more flexible approach to care home keeping in touch arrangements than the current tier two and tier three restrictions allow."
Meanwhile, as previously reported, almost a quarter of North Yorkshire care homes have reported at least one covid infection since the second wave.
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